Tag Archives: writing

Saturday with the Spark

OneWord.com: Sixty Seconds of Writing a Day

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If you want a little writing challenge, or if you just feel like stretching your creativity muscle a little, then I have a suggestion: head over to OneWord.com.

What’s It All About?

OneWord.com is a unique sort of writing website. When you land on the page, it gives you some simple instructions:

“You’ll see one word at the top of the following screen. You have sixty seconds to write about it. Click ‘go’ and the page will load with the cursor in place. Don’t think. Just write.”

That’s the whole concept of oneword.com. You’re given a word and you just WRITE. Whatever comes to mind, however stupid it might sound to you, however many spelling or grammar mistakes you might make, however trite it might feel, you just WRITE for 1 minute about it.

60 Seconds is Not as Short as You Might Think

The time limit isn’t stressful, even for a person like me who hates being timed. In fact, I find that it forces me to toss aside me self-censorship filter and any other inhibitions that keep me from writing as freely as I wish to.

Depending on how much your Muse runs away with you, you can end up writing almost a paragraph in 60 seconds, or you may only have a few words to say. That’s the great thing about oneword.com; you don’t have to write a certain number of words. Just add your thoughts, write about whatever the “word of the day” makes you think of. It’s completely free-form, and freeing.

Once You’re Done, Submit Your Work!

The website times you, and at the end of 60 seconds, it offers you the option to post your writing with your name/nickname, email address, and website address. (Your email address stays private.)

You don’t have to submit your writing if you don’t want to; some days I just do the prompt without submitting, just as a little exercise. But if you do click “submit,” you’ll have an opportunity to read what others have posted about the “word of the day,” and that’s another treat in and of itself. We’ve got some great hidden writers out there, if this website is any indication!

A Real-Life Example

A few days ago, while I was preparing this post, the “word of the day” prompt was “living.” This is what I typed in as a response:

Living. Existing. Breathing. Moving forward, or at least pretending to. These days I don’t feel like I’m doing much of real living–-am I doing anything worthwhile? Heck, I’m not even making a living, but I’m still here. Maybe that means something, after all. Maybe it’s not completely useless.

Despite my mood of the day, my response had a slightly happier turn than I was expecting. And this 60-second drabble turned out a lot more poetic than has been usual for me these days. I got to tap into a writing vein I don’t get a lot of time to be in, these days, and it was fun! (Isn’t that what creative writing is supposed to be, anyway?)

Summary

Give your Muse a little boost with oneword.com’s bite-sized writing prompts. I promise you, it’ll be painless, and it might just get you out of a writing rut!

Saturday with the Spark

Today is a Good Day to Write

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[Trekkie points for you if you got the Lieutenant Worf reference in the title]

Today’s post is simple but essential for all us writers to understand: any time can be writing time. The planets don’t have to be aligned just right, and the stocks don’t have to be up; it doesn’t matter if all the stuff on your desk is organized just so (unless you’re OCD, in which case it does :P).

My point is, you don’t have to wait for the perfect atmosphere and perfect setup to be able to write. In fact, if you wait for the “perfect time,” you’ll be waiting forever. Don’t hold yourself to just writing on a certain day or at a certain time of day, or just writing in one specific room on one specific desk–take inspiration wherever and whenever it comes.

This is where the old-fashioned portable notepad strategy comes into play, writing down ideas as they come to you. These days, however, the “notepad” could be a smartphone or tablet just as much as good ol’ pen and paper. However you choose to keep track of your ideas for stories, poems, and the like, make sure you note them somewhere and don’t let them float off into the ethers of your mind.

And lastly: when you DO write, think positively about your writing experience. Don’t focus on the drudgery of trying to get to some arbitrary “number of words” goal, and don’t keep thinking about how difficult this particular scene is to write. Think instead about how awesome it is to finally put this scene down in writing, after months of seeing it flash through your head.

Today IS a good day to write. Keep in mind that you’re the creator of this little world on paper (or in a digital file), and you can direct it anywhere, at any time, in any amount of words you choose.

Monday in the HTMLab

How Webdesigning is Like Writing and Music

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Since I both write music and literature outside of doing webdesign, I’ve found that the three activities are more similar than one might think otherwise. After all, they all activate my creativity, just in different ways; I play and design with pixels just like I do with notes and words.

So, here’s a little tongue-in-cheek webdesign philosophy for your Monday morning:

How is Webdesigning Like Writing?

  • Choosing just the right word for a description is like aligning each image pixel-perfectly on the screen.
  • In both writing and webdesign, the creator believes he or she has complete control over the final product, especially if working independently.
  • Both writers and webdesigners have the tendency to obsess over little details that nobody will actually notice.
  • Finding a missed typo in your writing is like finding a missed ending tag in your code–very annoying!

How is Webdesigning Like Music?

  • Little mistakes, whether in a browser or in performance, are rarely noticed by the audience.
  • Every musical performance is different, just like every Web browser renders a webpage a little differently.
  • What a listener gets out of a piece of music depends on his or her perspective and outlook on life; what a user gets out of a webpage depends on what browser and screen resolution he or she is using.
  • In both music and webdesign, no matter how many parts/harmony lines go into making it, it all renders as one beautiful whole to the audience.

Can you think of other ways that webdesign is like these art forms? What about other art forms (dance, visual art, etc.)? Leave me your thoughts in the comments! 😀

Saturday with the Spark

Using the Five Senses in Writing

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As a writer, sometimes I get WAY too caught up in telling the story, eager to get ahead to the next plot point. When I get in that impatient mode of writing, it’s hard to remember that I’m creating an experience for the reader, that I need to make the scene vibrate with life. I think all writers struggle, at some level, to make their stories have that kind of immediate life to them, like the readers are watching a movie unfold in their heads every time they read the printed words.

Putting Sensory Information Into Our Stories

One of the many ways we as writers can characterize that life–that rich, lush sense of a story being lived out in front of the reader–is to involve more of the five senses in the story.

Let me give you an example of prose without the five senses:

I walked out onto the front porch and went down the eight steps to my car, counting them as I went. I had to hurry–there was so little time left in the day to get my errand done.

This is a slice of very ordinary life, but it’s a very bland slice. Why does the person count the steps going down from the porch? Is this an OCD moment, or is there more purpose? Also, what time of day is this happening, that the narrator feels such a time pressure to get things done?

Sensory information can actually fill in the holes of this story, as well as describe the scene much better:

The breeze was a warm, moist breath along my arms as I opened the door to step outside onto the front porch. Summer’s humidity, along with the sharp, fresh tang of ozone, lay heavy on the air outside; it was this muggy air I’d been avoiding all day. But I couldn’t avoid the outdoors without ignoring my errand. Already I’d let so much of the day slip by that the eight front steps were darkened with auburn dusk and tree shadows. The velvet green leaves above my head swished a little as I made my way carefully down the steps, counting them so I wouldn’t slip.

The raspy voices of the crickets began tuning up all around me as I got into the car, popping a mint into my mouth and allowing myself to enjoy how the peppermint percolated on my tongue. If I just took care of it now, I reasoned, I’d have no reason to worry myself awake all night.

See how this prose is so much richer, and yet the story still moves along, despite the added description? The sentences are longer, and there are more of them, but each piece of sensory description adds life to the story and pulls it along. There are lush sights and sounds, distinctive scents, real sensations, and even a bit of taste thrown in, too–and all this brings the scene more vividly to life.

I’m not sure if this falls into the category of “show, don’t tell,” but I think the second selection of writing definitely outshines the first in terms of quality. What do you think? Which was the more engaging to read, for you?

To Make Your Writing Sing of the Senses:

  • Picture the scene in your mind. What colors are present? What visible textures? What kind of shadows, and what kind of light? Describe these for your reader, especially if they’re meaningful to the plot, or to the character’s state of mind.
  • Are there any sounds in the environment you’re writing about? If so, are they instantly recognizable (like music, laughter, or language), or are they randomly noisy (like cars rushing by, rattling, etc.)? Put a line or two in about these, if it makes any difference to your story’s plot or characters.
  • Any smells or tastes which are important to the story? If so, go ahead and include them–these are the two senses that get left out of a story all too easily. Just a few words about scents and tastes, however, can conjure up emotions and scenes of their own.
  • Don’t forget the sense of touch! Are there any important textures that you can feel in the scene you’re describing? What about anything in the environment that affects your character (like the breeze in my example paragraphs)? What does the environment feel like?
  • Include just enough of these details to paint a scene, but not so many that you forget to move your plot along. This is where it’s helpful to have someone else read it, to see if they get the same “mind-picture” you do without crowding out your story.
Saturday with the Spark

Why Write Fanfiction?

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Most people might assume, after learning that I am a writer, that I have been writing stories with original characters all my life. That is, at best, only partially true.

In fact, for a very long time, I struggled with creating characters, naming them, everything. I had no problem coming up with great plotlines–it’s just that the character creation part was difficult, for whatever reason. Especially as a young writer (referring to single-digits ages), I never could seem to come up with original characters that were good enough for my plotlines, but I could always match plotlines with established stories, taking old stories in new directions.

And so, quite by accident, I became an author of what I now know as fanfiction, at a very young age. (For instance: somewhere in my house, there is a very old fanfiction about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty hanging out and playing games, written on steno notebook paper in blue highlighter because I was about six-and-a-half and thought the blue ink was “pretty.” xD)

What Exactly IS Fanfiction?

Fanfiction is basically a new work of written fiction based off a movie, TV show, video game, or book; fanfiction authors can borrow nearly all, some, or nearly none of the original work’s characters, settings, and plotline in order to shape their own creation.

Fanfiction’s Slightly Bad Reputation

However, fanfiction in general has gotten a bad rap, for two reasons:

  1. It is usually considered a type of “derivative work,” which is kinda-sorta-not plagiarism–you are borrowing someone else’s characters to act out your plot;
  2. The fanfiction form has been used more for writing pornographic scenes than really doing anything new with the established characters.

Some established authors hate that their works get fanfic’ed, some are fine with it, and some are indifferent entirely. But many writers and literature lovers dislike the field of fanfic authors greatly, mostly because of these two reasons. They even go so far as to say that fanfic authors are not “real” writers at all, since they borrow rather than create their own characters.

Why Fanfiction Is Actually Not So Bad

However, this criticism misses part of the point of fanfiction: doing something new with established characters. It’s kind of like playing in a literary “sandbox,” just trying new things, seeing what happens. It can free creativity (and inspire new plotlines) in a way that struggling to create original characters can stifle.

For instance, my old story about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty hanging out as friends might sound silly. But I was willing to step outside the box of traditional thought, even then, and try something new with the characters. It made writing a whole lot more fun; I got to toy around like a chemist mixing chemicals and substances in a lab. It wasn’t the best story on earth, but it wasn’t meant to be–it was done for fun, and for the experience of trying new ideas.

I think of fanfiction primarily as flattery to the original author of the work; after all, they’ve made awesome characters in a well-designed world, otherwise people would not respond by trying to work with those characters in that world. I don’t believe that fanfic authors are trying to steal anybody’s credit (I certainly don’t approach it that way, at least); it’s just that sometimes, your creativity gets to boiling when a great author’s work has struck a chord within you.

I also believe that fanfiction can be a good training ground for new authors. Certainly I cut my teeth as a writer by writing fanfic! Where I once struggled with creating good original characters, I have now become good enough to trust my instincts while pulling together characters for my own novel. Where I once worried that my style was too trite and boring, I have now tightened up my writing style through practice with fanfictions of all sorts.

I do agree that some fanfics are a little difficult to read because they seem so personal to the fanfic author; I also agree that some fanfic authors go a little overboard. But one cannot become a better writer without practice and input from readers, and fanfiction sites can be great places to get feedback and share the stories that have been bubbling inside your brain. And after all, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to read it! 🙂

To Learn More about Fanfiction

The potential legal pitfalls of publishing fanfiction online is well covered by ChillingEffects.org’s Fanfiction article–you do have to be careful publishing it!

But, on the positive side, there are many fanfiction archive websites online, as well as numerous fanfic author communities through Livejournal, Tumblr, WordPress, and many others. Here are just a few links I know of:

WARNING: Not all may be safe for work, and some may have more adult-themed stories, as discussed earlier in this article.

Most-Recommended

Fanfiction.net
MediaMiner.org
FictionPress.com

Other Excellent Sites

Archive Of Our Own
Mibba.com
Figment.com
ImagineFanfiction.com
Wattpad.com
Fictionesque.com
ForeverFandom.net
FanficAuthors.net
MyFandoms.com (also for fan videos and art)
FicWad.com

Lists of Fanfiction Sites

Fanfiction Directory
Fanfiction Sites: A List on Squidoo.com

Monday in the HTMLab

The “Great Wall of Text” and Other Web Writing Mistakes

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Making content for the Web is not as easy a proposition as it first sounds. At least, not if you’re going to attract readers to it. This, I have unfortunately discovered since I began running this blog; for instance, my writing style may be conversational and fairly engaging, but it’s also a little verbose. (I suffer from “Wall-of-Text Syndrome” on a daily basis. LOL)

This is a Web writing mistake that can drive away visitors–but it’s not the only one we Web content creators can make. Read on, for the 5 most common writing mistakes on the Web, and how to fix them!

Web Writing Mistakes

  1. Paragraphs that are too long (more than 5 lines)
  2. Font size smaller than 12px
  3. Font color too similar to background color
  4. No pictures to help illustrate points
  5. Using 100 words when 10 will do

How Can We Fix These Mistakes?

Thankfully, Web content is very forgiving–all you need to do is hit the backspace key and rework your sentences. And believe me, your readers will thank you for improved readability and comprehension!

#1: Break Up Long Paragraphs

Preview how your Web content looks in your layout. Are any paragraphs more than 5 lines long when contained within your divs or tables? If so, you’ll need to reword and reformat to break those longer paragraphs into smaller sections. Just like dividing larger pieces of food into smaller bits, keeping your paragraphs small makes it easier for users to digest what you’re saying.

Think about it this way: would you rather read Example #1 or Example #2, below?

Example #1
Crooked Glasses is a multi-topic blog–sounds pretty weird, but I enjoy writing it. During the week, I cover web design and development on Mondays, social commentary and philosophy on Tuesdays, Biblical analysis and application on Wednesdays, gaming and game strategies on Thursdays, Internet surfing on Fridays, and any and all forms of creativity on Saturdays. (Occasionally, I have a wildcard post on Sunday, too!) This blog has been going since January 2011 and can be followed on Twitter; I’d love to hear back from y’all about subtopics you’d like to see covered. Also, comments are enabled on every post, so if you have opinions or ideas regarding any post, feel free to click “comment!”

Example #2
Crooked Glasses is a multi-topic blog–sounds pretty weird, but I enjoy writing it.

During the week, I cover web design and development on Mondays, social commentary and philosophy on Tuesdays, Biblical analysis and application on Wednesdays, gaming and game strategies on Thursdays, Internet surfing on Fridays, and any and all forms of creativity on Saturdays. (Occasionally, I have a wildcard post on Sunday, too!)

This blog has been going since January 2011 and can be followed on Twitter; I’d love to hear back from y’all about subtopics you’d like to see covered. Also, comments are enabled on every post, so if you have opinions or ideas regarding any post, feel free to click “comment!”

Which felt easier to read? If you’re like most Web users, you probably answered Example #2–when information is spaced out in understandable chunks, it helps our brains understand it better. Spacing out content, even if you don’t rewrite it, can help our users understand what we’re writing.

#2: Enlarge Font Size

I don’t know about you, but loads of tiny font crammed onto a page doesn’t make for happy reading for me. Small font sizes are all the rage for designers who don’t want to take the focus off their layouts, but if we want our users to be able to use our sites, we need to make our content as easily-read as possible.

I’ve found that the 12pt font size works well for body content (that’s what I’m using on this blog)–it’s not so big that it overwhelms the screen, but it’s not ant-size either. We don’t want to give our users squinting wrinkles, after all!

Look at this example of the same text formatted in 8pt and 12pt:

Both use the same text (an excerpt of the famous “Lorem Ipsum” text), and the same font color. Which would you prefer to read on a computer screen?

#3: High-Contrast Text and Background

Many designers, especially beginning designers, choose to have their font colors similar to their background colors…sometimes a little too similar. (I admit, I made the same mistake in my newbie days!) As a designer, you do want your colors to match well together. It’s just that the font color and the immediate background color (behind the font) should not be almost the same color.

An example, here:

This dark brown text seems to almost vanish into the similarly-hued background. If this represents important text on your website, it’s likely your user will either ignore it completely, or try to read it but give up on it.


Putting the font in a much paler color pops against the same brown background I used in the previous example. See how much easier it is to read?

#4: Add a Couple of Explanatory Pictures

As I’ve seen for myself throughout this blog post, adding a couple of pictures really does help illustrate your points. Not only do you have to write less to explain yourself, but it further breaks up any “walls of text” that might be on your page already.

If I hadn’t done the font color and size examples in pictures, for instance, then I would have had to resort to explaining myself in words, which might otherwise have been ignored or skimmed over. Pictures draw the user’s attention and help visually summarize what you’re writing.

#5: Edit Down to One Sentence, Then Expand

This is tough. Oh, wow, is this ever tough for me. I love words, so it’s hard for me to cut the excess away. But if we want our users to read what we’ve worked so hard to write, then it needs to be concise. After all, if the user doesn’t get what he or she wants from our site as quickly as possible, they’ll go somewhere else.

One of the tricks that has really helped me with this is to edit down a paragraph into one sentence, often called a “topic sentence” in grade school. Then, I can expand my paragraph out just a little bit with enough detail to make it smooth and flowing again.

With that in mind, let’s take the text I wrote from the first example, and edit it down just a bit.

Before Editing
Crooked Glasses is a multi-topic blog–sounds pretty weird, but I enjoy writing it.

During the week, I cover web design and development on Mondays, social commentary and philosophy on Tuesdays, Biblical analysis and application on Wednesdays, gaming and game strategies on Thursdays, Internet surfing on Fridays, and any and all forms of creativity on Saturdays. (Occasionally, I have a wildcard post on Sunday, too!)

This blog has been going since January 2011 and can be followed on Twitter; I’d love to hear back from y’all about subtopics you’d like to see covered. Also, comments are enabled on every post, so if you have opinions or ideas regarding any post, feel free to click “comment!”

One-Sentence Summary
This is a multi-topic blog, covering web design, opinions, Scripture, gaming, fun links, and creativity; come read, follow, and comment!

Expanding On the Summary, Making It Sing
Web design and development! Social and philosophical opinions! Even Biblical interpretations, gaming strategies, new websites, and all the arts! If any (or all) of these topics interest you, then come visit Crooked Glasses, a rare form of blog. If you like what you see, follow us on Twitter, and leave your thoughts in the comments!

Without losing any of the main points, I was able to summarize and energize the text into a much more attractive bundle. I believe this is easier to read (and more fun to read)–what do you think?

Summary

By taking a little time to revise and reformat your words, your Web content can be infinitely more engaging and convenient for your users. And the best thing? Writing can be revised forever, so if you don’t get the fix right the first time, there’s always the Backspace key. Like I said, your users will thank you for this!

Saturday with the Spark

Keyboard Barf (a poem)

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It is not my day for writing,
Though the “New File” button waits
It’s just not the day for writing,
‘Cause my brain is not in gear

I’ve begun to type a couple of lines,
But can’t continue my thoughts
So the Backspace key is my best friend
And the document remains blank

How am I supposed to create like this?
How am I supposed to write?
My brain won’t ignite, and will not take
The spark I’m trying to light

No plainer words can I state it in:
I’m well and truly stuck
Because every word that I’ve written so far
Just sounds like keyboard barf

…and ironically, this is probably the coolest poem I’ve written all year. My Muse has a maddening sense of humor.

Saturday with the Spark

Being a Newb at Art: Not a Bad Thing

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Most people look at newbies or people who are new to something, negatively. Newbies are seen as lacking knowledge, always needing help, and not worth the time of experienced people. This most certainly goes for artistic pursuits; many times, I’ve seen experienced artists of every type look down on the “newbs” in their field, as if they have no talent or aren’t worth even talking to.

But, in my opinion, being a “newb” at something doesn’t mean you won’t have any talent for it. In fact, I’ve found that instead of my own newbish-ness getting in the way of learning more, I feel freer to explore whatever I’m trying to learn. I’m not yet so “experienced” that I’m locked into thinking a certain way or always doing things a certain way. Creatively speaking, being a newb can actually be more fun and more enlightening.

Newbs Have More Fun! (And Make Better Art)

Why do I say that being a newb is more creative and enlightening? Because as artists, as creative people, we can get sucked into the trap of “creating what other people like” or “creating art that sells” instead of “creating what we want.” We can easily fall for doing things the way other people have done them, just because the other people were successful and we want to be successful, too.

The bad thing about following the crowd in this way is that it can kill your desire to do art for yourself, as I have found out with my novel and my webdesign. Try to please others too often and for too long, and you end up completely dissatisfied with your soulless work.

But allowing yourself to be a newb, or getting back to a newb state of mind, can free you from this constrained thinking, and thus get you back into creating what makes you happy and what expresses your thinking the best. For example:

  1. Visual Art: Being an art newb means you can paint, draw, sketch, and/or sculpt any way you please; you aren’t constrained by the “laws of the Masters” or what’s currently avant-garde.
  2. Music: Being a music newb means you can put chords and melodies together according to what sounds good to YOU, not what sounds good to some dusty expert, or even what other musicians think.
  3. Dance: Being a dance newb means you can try out different poses and motions without worrying that it’s not part of a “traditional” dance routine, and without trying to do moves that you physically can’t do yet.
  4. Drama/Theater: Being a drama/theater newb means you are free to play any kind of role you want and explore many different characters without being typecast yet.

Creativity is All About “Thinking Outside the Box”–Why Put Your Art in a Box, Then?

In essence, being a “newb” at art means that you’re still defining your style, still exploring your art, and still having fun with it. The moment you lose that sense of wonder and exploration for your art is the moment the artistic sense in you wilts, in my opinion. See: my novel, and my increasing difficulty with writing it because I’m afraid nobody will “like it enough.” As soon as that fear crept in, writing slowed to a crawl for me.

But it is possible to get your “newb groove” back, as I have written about recently. Just allow yourself to experience art the way you used to, allow yourself to be childlike and “newbish” all over again. You’d be surprised how well this works! After all, yours truly just wrote a new page in her novel. 🙂

Saturday with the Spark

Sometimes, You Have to Let Your Mind Go Wild

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Have you ever been hopelessly stuck on a creative project? I sure have. For all the times I bragged about how I never got writer’s block, I’ve sure endured it enough times now to be sick of it. It’s such a frustrating feeling, KNOWING you want to create and yet feeling stymied by your own brain.

While blundering about trying to solve my latest writer’s block, I found an unexpected solution–try writing something completely different. Think it sounds crazy? I did, too, until it worked for me.

Writer’s Block from Heck–but Just on My Novel

I had been spinning my mental tires for nearly a month on my novel. I felt increasingly silly about continuing to write it; I was beginning to lose faith in my ability to write it, and in the strength of the novel’s themes and ideas itself. Some days, I couldn’t even bring myself to open the file.

But, it seemed, I was perfectly able to do other creative stuff…like the hilariously teenagerish fanfiction story that was simply busting to come out of my head. It was like a hyperactive bunny in my brain–it would not leave me alone. I resisted working on it for a while because I wanted to use that awesome energy to write my novel…except that the hyperactive energy all drained away when I tried to work on my novel. I had no idea why this was happening; I was bewildered.

Last Resort: An Unusual Writing Binge

Finally, I began to write the fanfic instead, feeling guilty all the while–but it was like eating a bag of chocolates after a month of trying to force veggies down my throat. The fanfic progressed by leaps and bounds, in the way that my novel had in the early days; it was exhilarating. I hadn’t written like that in what felt like years.

Eventually (about 40 PAGES in!), I came to a point in the fanfic where I wrote a character development piece similar to one I had done in my own novel. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just plagiarizing myself or falling back on a cliche, so I went back, found the similar development in my novel file, and started reading.

…And reading. …And reading. Page by page, I began to fall back in love with my own novel.

Wait, What Just Happened Here?

It was an “OMG!” moment, a “Eureka!” moment. It was like I was rediscovering why my novel was awesome all over again. What I had effectively done was to take my brain out of the infinite loop of “gotta write this novel–ugh, I’m afraid this novel stinks–gotta write this anyway,” simply by focusing on a completely different creative project. The fanfic, as crazy and silly as it was, was also so very different in scope that it allowed the “noveling” part of my brain to shut down and restart.

Letting my brain go wild and write what it so desperately wanted to write (even if I had first deemed the project “not worth my creative time”) was the key. It got me writing again, after being horribly stuck. Like being towed from a muddy ditch, I emerged from my month-long struggle quite disheveled, but ready to go on the novel again. It just took remembering that yes, I COULD write well, and no, writing did NOT have to be an uphill battle.

The Moral of This “Novel” Story…

…If you’re absolutely stuck on one creative project, it is not a sin to start another one. Do whatever you can to get the treads of your creative mind running again!

Monday in the HTMLab

How Social Networks Killed the Personal Blog

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I remember when I first began web design, personal blogs were all the rage. Yes, yes, I know, imagine me sitting in a rocker with a blanket over my knees if you wish, but I was kickin’ around the Web in the early 2000s and saw it with my own screen.

Back then, blogs had a more longform, intimate style of writing. They were how you shared your life stories and thoughts with others, mimicking the diaries so many of us likely kept–except that these “diaries” were online, and viewable by many people. Not only that, you could be an anonymous writer if you wished.

But now, the era of the “personal” blog seems to have waned. Blogs are now more for site updates, and maybe a little project tracking–they are more about topics than about lives. My own is a rare multi-topic blog, but not one of those topics is my life (and you’re much better off reading something that isn’t about my life, I assure you 😛 ). Personal blogs just aren’t as important to us anymore.

Why? I believe the answer lies in two words: “social networks.”

How Social Networks = Easier Personal Blogging

Believe it or not, early blog websites, like Diaryland, Blogger, Livejournal, and so many others, were some of the first social network sites. They allowed bloggers to talk to each other in ways that were system-constructed, with comments on blog posts and the like. So the Internet foundations of functioning social networks were already laid when networks that focused on shorter-form writing (such as FriendFeed, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter) came along.

But these days, each of us likely writes several short textual bursts about our life in one day. We don’t all have to be gifted writers to write about our lives anymore; we don’t have to catalog what we did all day in a single, long blog entry. We can simply write about the interesting stuff that happens to us, as it happens, and not have to work it into a grand thematic short story of our day.

Why I Largely Ditched Personal Blogging for Social Media

As a creative writer who inexplicably hated keeping diaries and writing personal blogs (because my life is just that boring), I gravitated to the social network. Why? Because the social network didn’t make me JUST blog about myself to be considered “active.” I could comment on other people’s life events, like their pictures, play a few games, share a few links–all on one website. Just like big-box stores like Walmart capitalize on having “all you need at one store,” social networks like Facebook capitalize on sharing “all of your life on one site.”

But I realize that with the ease and ubiquitous nature of social networks came the inevitable waning of more “personalized” blogs. I gradually quit writing on my own Livejournal about my life after a while of being on Facebook, with this simple reasoning: “why write about my day on a personal blog, when I’ve already written a status message or two about it on Facebook and shared it with friends?”

I can imagine that many other Internet users have thought the same way, about whatever social network they prefer to visit and post on. Social networking makes it easier to post about your life, and takes less time than a blog.

There’s a Big “But” Here

Not everyone has stopped doing personal blogs, though. In fact, the number of small blogs and free blog websites has only risen in response to social networks, even though less people visit or make personal blogs these days. This trend, linked to the sheer number of topic blogs being produced, gives me hope that people aren’t completely getting away from “real” writing and longer article-driven blogs in favor of quick tweets and likes.

Though much of the Internet’s attention has been drawn away from this longform, diary-style life narrative, there still seems to be a call for it among individual users. Perhaps the demise of the personal blog is inevitable and in process, as it appears…or perhaps a new generation of Internet users will gravitate back to it.